Alla's Notebook

[Translated from the original Yiddish.]

Alla Oppenheim

Born May 3, 1934

In Krasnik – Lublin

Daughter of Yitzchak and Eota[?]

At the first day occurrence of the war, Al with other children were sent to “OKOV” during a bombing. She was not wounded in the process. Before the Germans' arrival, Alla with her family and other Jews went several kilometers out of the city. On route, there was a bombing. When they returned to the city, they discovered that the Germans had totally ransacked and robbed their home. The Germans wanted to shoot the Zaidah but didn’t. The Jews quickly went back to work, and to the banks. There at work there were fights. The Germans constantly robbed the Jews and would not let them conduct business. The children would still play but the Germans would threaten them. Alla’s older brother and sister studied in a cellar, before at they used to study in the house. They used to have someone stand guard outside to make sure the Germans weren’t coming. One day, Alla was standing guard when an SS man appeared. He dragged her into the house and discovered the teacher and students. He threatened them with death. After this incident, they began to study in the cellar. At home they lived off the money they saved before the war. As the Germans made Alla’s father go to work but didn’t pay him. Then they began shooting Jews. Once, they asked a cousin of Alla’s to tell them the whereabouts of a Jew who ran away, a Dr. Filosofia. Alla’s cousin refused. The SS became angry, they spat on their boots, and made Alla’s cousin lick them clean. Prior to Passover 42 – they took all the men to work duty. It was a bitter rainstorm. They had dogs barking and nipping at the Jews. They stood an entire day in the rain without food. After, they took a portion of the men to Lublin. Alla’s father was also taken there because the German, for whom he worked, wasn’t there to speak up for him. Alla’s father got very ill from the difficult work. When he returned, he had to continue to work for the German, even in a state of ill health.

The First “Aussiedlung”

After Passover ‘42, we suddenly heard a lot of shooting outside. Alla’s family hid in the cellar, but the Germans found them. Everyone went out into the street. They began shooting people in the rain, in the yards, in their homes. They set the dogs on them, and some people were bitten to death. A dog attacked Alla – ripping off her clothes, and began to bite, but her mother chased the dog away. At the same time, Alla’s father was working for the Germans, and didn’t know what was going on. When he heard, he rushed back and bribed the Germans to let his family go. Zaida, however, had gone back to get his “tefillin,” and the Germans got him, took him away in a wagon, and sent him to Treblinka.

After this first “occurrence” life became worse. Every day, a group of Germans would come into the homes and shoot Jews. At this time, they already had “Penalty Work Camps”. By Krolnik was the camp “Budzyn.” Alla’s mother went there every day to work; they worked at OKOPES[?], and so our fate and life became more difficult each day. Occasionally, the Polish nursemaid would come to watch the children, because even though father worked for “his” Germans, he couldn’t always come home at night –

In a few months after, the second “horrors” took place. They brought several thousand Jews from surrounding villages and just let them wander in the streets. The Germans kept shooting them in the streets. The meanest German was “Kleiner.” He stabbed a Jew to death. They rounded up all the Jews and divided them some were taken away, but some who were still

“German friends” turned their Jews. The Germans, for whom my father worked, said he was a good worker and could stay, but not his family. Alla and her brother hooked themselves up with a family from the “Juden Rat”. They were taken to a Polish school. Her mother and sister were still in the town square, but were able to hide in a garden of a Christian family. At night, under the light of the stars, Alla, her brother and father returned home to the homes of their friends. They were surrounded by fellow Jews who committed suicide that day. Some shot themselves, some hung themselves, some took their lives by other means. Alla’s cousin and his entire family hung themselves. Some people left notes where to be buried or to take revenge on the Nazis. On the notes, the descriptions said it was worse those first “Occurrences”. That night Alla’s mother and sister returned home. Of all the others who were gathered in the square – we never found out their fate. Alla’s aunt was taken away but en route she escaped and was wounded in the process.

A few weeks later, they made Krolnik into a ghetto. All the Jews from Lublin were put into the Ghetto. It was very crowded. Three families lived in one house. The ghetto was encircled with barbed wire fences and it was very difficult to get anything to eat. The children didn’t play. All day they looked out of the windows, to watch for the Germans. In the synagogue were people who didn’t work – they were praying. The Germans caught them and took them away to Treblinka. One Jew in the group used to hide Jewish songs in the cracks of the walls, but Alla doesn’t remember them because in these days, she didn’t understand Yiddish very well. One day, the Germans announced that all the mothers and children should come to the “baths”. Most of them went and ended up in Treblinka. Alla pleaded with her mother to go to the “baths” too, but her mother refused. Soon after they heard shooting and realized the danger, and ran away to the countryside. Mother hid in the wheat fields. Alla and her sister ran to where their father was working. There were now only a few remaining families of Jews in Krolnik. The commander of the Jewish group – whose name was Kavo – asked that the few remaining families come back to the ghetto. He was witness to his own family was taken away to Treblinka.

After this, we began an underground tunnel, and we hid in areas under the floor. It was very damp, dark and “tight spaced,” more than twenty people were there. One family had a large feather comforter with them, and wouldn’t share it. Once, Alla almost fainted from hunger, and the other family had water and wouldn’t share it. They remained in this bunker for one month. When someone “squealed” on them, Alla suspected a schoolmate of hers, the Germans arrived. People began to scream and scatter. The Germans threw grenades at the people. Alla’s grandmother broke both her arms and a foot. Alla got a sprained ankle. They took them to prison. A Jewish commander who hid nearby, stole some of the Jews out of Prison without the Germans seeing them. Alla witnessed how some of them trying to get away were shot and grenades were thrown at them. Her mother and sister had gotten away.

Alla was in the kitchen, her father came there to eat lunch and told her that he could no longer find a way to help her, and suggested she try to get to a Polish friend. Alla said she would not go to any Pole, she would rather surrender to the Germans. Father, as a last resort, took her to his work, where they hid her in a closet. She discovered that her mother and sister were also hiding there. They remained there for a few days.

After that Alla’s father made them a new hiding place near the camp where he worked. He would bring food for them. Their hiding place was a large oven, they were covered in “soot.” The Germans heard a baby cry – destroyed the hiding place, they almost suffocated. The Germans stripped them and searched their clothes for hidden gold. Alla had some hidden in the hem of her clothes.

Alla’s story ends here in the notebook and the rest of the writing is songs of the ghetto.

The Song of Treblinka [Song 1]

Not far away from buildings afar
There line people in the boards and the wagons
There you hear the scream of a children to a mother
Mother, why are you leaving me alone,
Why not together
The Jewish families began to be divided
No time for a kiss
Just cold bread
At night – put to death
They’re going away
To a better end.
Treblinka there, the final grave
Whoever goes there, remains,
Never to return

(Last verse)

The heart aches,
When we but remember
How they poisoned our brothers and sisters
There you here the cries of the child
“Mother, why are you leaving me alone” (etc.)

We used to sing this song a lot – also this song.

[Song 2]

Have you heard – my brothers
Dear brothers
What happened in Poland
Our homes, where the Jews were murdered
The cries the shouts
Everyone fought with their hands
In shame and in spite
The holy synagogues were burnt

(refrain)

Oh, God, have some pity
On the Jewish souls
And let it all cease,
Stretch out your right hand
On the holy land
On the holy Eretz-Yisrael
Fathers and mothers and every one
They wanted to shield their children
The[y] prayed and pleaded to God.
Show us your wonders
And whatever ones they pleaded for mercy from their foes
The Jews were trampled by their feet
They took Jewish children and spilled their blood on the streets

(refrain)

The song was written by children, and their parents put the melody to it – and they used to sing it.

Alla also remembered this song.

Hidden in the Ghetto [Song 3]

Why should I worry about tomorrow
And lose my today with its fortune
Why should I think of yesterday
Because yesterday never returns
It’s only today that we must be happy
So laugh, cause today is still yours,
Yesterday will never return
Oh mother, who knows, what will be
Today I’m lying in my buggy and I’m a child
Tomorrow a bride, my youth already gone.
A father, a mother, death lurks ahead.
From birth to death is only one minute

In the ghetto – they also created another song.

[Song 4]

The Jew is chased and haunted
His every day is insecure
Every evening is dark disaster
His hopes – everything for him is dashed
Every where, they follow his step in flames,
All this because, he hears the name “JEW”
Tell me where can I go
There’s no place I can see
Every door is closed for me
To the left to the right
It’s the same in every land.
There is no where to go –
Though I cry in the crowd
The world is so beautiful and sweet
Every house, every road, every street
But life is nothing
We are not united with one street
Everywhere they follow his footsteps in flames
All this because he hears the name “JEW”